The Church of Eleven22 - S01 E37 - It Is Written

Episode Date: June 3, 2020

Hey church family. If you got your Bibles, we're going to be back in Luke chapter four. It is Devo time. And today, shout out to Ryan Kwan from the Resonate Church in California. Lord knows he needs our prayers out there as they work to do church in this crazy, crazy times. Be praying for him. All right. Yesterday I said that we were going to talk about what do you do when the enemy's coming after you. And so we were in 1st Peter 5. And now I want to go to Luke chapter four because literally the enemy goes after Christ.

And what Jesus does when he is tempted by the enemy is I think he shows us another way that we are to stand firm against our adversary because God has given us this unbelievable gift called the Word of God. That is more than just some history book. It's more than a bunch of first century eyewitnesses that recorded what was happening. it is living and active and more powerful sharper than a double-edged sword, and the Word of God never goes out in vain. It can do things that you and I cannot do. And so, here we go.

What do you do when the enemy is coming after you? Here's what Jesus did. Luke chapter 4 and Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan. By the way, do you know what he did at the Jordan? He got baptized. Pretty good day for Jesus. walks into the water, has this conversation with John the Baptist, he gets baptized.

When Jesus gets baptized, the heaven's open. God the Father speaks out loud, behold my son, in whom I am well pleased. And the spirit of God in the form of a dove descends on to Jesus. The whole Trinity is at his baptism. Now, how does it make you feel when your dad said awesome stuff about you? Pretty awesome, right? Okay. I know as a little boy, man, I lived for it.

Honestly, I'm 46 years old. My dad's 70-something, 71. And I still, if he says anything, behold my son in whom I am well-pleased, it just does something in me that I can't explain. Imagine your perfect Heavenly Father, perfectly loving the son of God. This is what's happening.

And why do I point all this out? Most often our greatest temptations, our greatest valleys, our greatest desert, experiences come right off of our greatest mountain top experiences. So be on the lookout. Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan, and he was led by the Spirit in the wilderness for 40 days being tempted by the devil. Get that right. James tells us that God never tempts anybody, but the Spirit leads Jesus to the environment whereby he would be tested or tempted

by the enemy. And he ate nothing during those days. And when they were ended, he was hungry. Maybe the biggest understatement in the whole Bible. Verse three, the devil said to him, if you are the son of God, all right there. One of the things you've got to know about the enemy is he is not omniscient. That means he does not know everything. But he knows a lot because he's been around for a really long time. And one of the things that the enemy will do, by the way, he's not very creative. He seems to keep doing the same things over and over and over and over.

And he starts with identity. In fact, you remember when he came to Adam and Eve in Genesis chapter 3? Do you remember what he says there? Did God really say, and now here he starts with identity with Jesus, if you are the Son of God. You see, the enemy wants us to question three things about God. He wants us to question the word of God, the work of God, and the will of God.

In other words, the Word of God, is that what the Bible really means? The work of God. When Jesus died on the cross, did that really count for you and the will of God? Are you sure he's for you and not against you? So pay attention to that. He starts with Jesus with identity.

If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread. Now, what does he do? He's going after Jesus's flesh. In 1 John, the Bible tells us to not love the world or the things of this world. That all this world has to offer is the pride of life, the lust of the eyes,

the lust of the flesh. This temptation, in other words, Jesus has a tackle. box and only three lures exist in his tackle box. Pride of life, the lust of the eyes, and the lust of the flesh. And he starts the first like bait that he puts on his hook to try to hook Jesus, which is what a lure is, right? It's a trick. You try to tempt the bass to go for it. It looks delightful to the eyes. It looks delightful to the flesh. It says, you're the biggest bass in the last. You're the biggest bass in the if you can get me. And the problem is that it's got a hook to it. You see, temptation is tempting.

Temptation is tempting. But the problem with temptation is that every temptation has a hook to it. It snags you. It ensnars you. And so the first one that the enemy is trying to ensnare Jesus with is this. If you're the Son of God, command this stone to become bread. It's a lust of the flesh. and here's what I mean. Here's, if you expanded this, this is the internal dialogue that you have, come on, Jesus, you deserve this. You've been fasting for 40 days.

God has given you the ability to make bread out of rocks, and so to make your flesh feel better that you have this desire that you want to meet, so why don't you just meet that desire? That is what the lust of the flesh is. Sometimes, for sure, it plays out in the areas of sex where people, you know, you're single, and you're like, well, come on, man. I mean, I desire this. I know God may say sex is for married people

and I'm not married, but this is my desire and I deserve this. I'm not hurting anybody. And essentially what you're doing is you are falling for the lure of the lust of the flesh. But it doesn't just have to be sex. It's any time that you think you deserve to feel away. It could be alcohol. after a long work week and you get home and you're like, hey, I deserve to drink and drink and drink until I can't remember anything else. You begin to tell yourself this or it could be a pill. I deserve to feel this way, you know? I know these drugs are not prescribed to me, but I deserve to feel this way. This is the temptation that Jesus faced here. And how did he respond? Jesus answered him, it is written. Now, spoiler alert, he's going to be tempted through.

three times, he's going to respond three times with these words. It is written. In other words, Jesus referred back to the scriptures every single time. When the enemy comes at you, I would implore to you to have specific scriptures that help you battle against the specific temptations that the enemy throws your way. And Jesus answered him, it is written, man shall not live on bread alone. And the devil took him up and showed him, there's your key word, showed him, all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time and said to him, to you, I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been delivered to me, and I will give it to whom I will. If you then will worship me, it will be yours. The second thing that the enemy throws at him is the lust of the

eyes. You see, the lust of the eyes is this like worship of stuff. It's like when we see, we can't content in the house that we have because we went to our neighbor's house or somebody in the next neighborhood over and it was so nice and you didn't even know you had to have it until you saw it. And here's the problem with it. Here's the problem with it. Listen, man, God is not against stuff. He's not against stuff until you put your hope in that stuff. Or particularly when you think that stuff is going to bring you satisfaction.

Like you can't bring your first and best to God because your house payment is. too high because you saw that thing and you had to have it. And the hook now is that you're in debt up to your eyeballs and the debtor is slave to the lender. The ritual over the poor and the debtor is slave to the lender and you are enslaved now that there are times in your life where God wants you to be radically generous in some specific area and you can't because you spend all your money on all this stuff that your eyeballs told you, I've got to have that. Jesus answered, it is written. You shall worship the Lord of your God, and Him only shall you serve. In other words, what Jesus is quoting here is,

you will never be fully and finally satisfied by the temporary stuff of this world. But all of your worth worship towards the one true God. And the crazy thing is, is that when you do that, when you are generous, when you do bring your first and best, when you do tithe, when you say, Jesus, it's all yours, I want to glorify you with it. All the crazy thing is is then and only then, when you are generous, when you do bring your first and best, when you do tithe, when you say, when you say, Jesus, yes, it's all, when you say, when you do you, when you give by faith generously, then you can really enjoy all the stuff

that the Lord allows you to have. Third temptation. And he took him to Jerusalem. And he set him on the pinnacle of the temple, and he said to him, if you are the son of God, then throw yourself down from here, for it is written.

He will command his angels concerning you, to guard you, and on their hands they will bear you up lest you strike your foot against the stone. notice what is happening here. By the way, this is the temptation of the pride of life. Jesus, you are the son of God. Why don't you show this world what a big deal you are, and why don't you put God in an impossible situation? The Bible commands this, so why don't you throw yourself off the temple? That's what they're talking about, the corner of the temple.

Why don't you throw yourself off the temple, and God has to protect you because you are such a big deal. Why don't you show this world in your own power what a big deal you are. This is called the pride of life. You see that the lust of the flesh is this temptation to feel away. The lust of the eyes is this temptation is to have things. The pride of life is this temptation to try to be somebody. You know, this is when you step over everybody to make sure that you get to the top of that corporate ladder. This is when everybody's telling a story and you have to one up everybody's story to make sure that you're the biggest deal in the room.

This is the temptation to look around, and when you're the most powerful, everybody better know it. This is the temptation of pride and arrogance. And the crazy thing is, is that the enemy quotes the scriptures. So just because somebody's got a Bible verse, does not mean they are right because the devil was not right. And Jesus answered him, it is said, you shall not put the Lord your God to the test. and when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time. So what do you do?

What do you do when the enemy comes against you? Again, from the very beginning until today, all he's got against us is this, pride of life, lest of the eyes, less than the flesh. In fact, all the way back to the book of Genesis, chapter three, I think we've talked about this, when he comes against Adam and Eve with his temptation, did God really say,

did God really say not to eat of this fruit? And then he goes with the pride of life. The only reason he doesn't want you to eat of that fruit is that you'll be like God. So you can be your own God's pride of life. Now the Bible says, and when Eve saw that it was delightfully to the eyes, the lust of the eyes, and good for food, lust of the flesh, she took an ate and gave some to her husband who was with her. So one of the things that I think helps is to identify how the enemy is attacking

and then identify specifically, specifically what does God's word say about that and you stand on the truth of God's word. Now listen to me. Though in Ephesians 6, it says that the only offensive weapon against the enemy is the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. We don't use the word of God to defeat the enemy,

but we use the word of God to remind us that Jesus has already defeated him at the cross, at the cross. And there is no temptation that we ever find ourselves in that God has not given us an escape route or a way out. See, I remember video games

when they were awesome where they were just like straight lines coming down and you blew them up or there was like a, you know, Pac-Man eating dots or a big ape through barrels at you and you jumped over them.

Okay, and one of the things, if you'll remember, if you played by Pac-Man or Miss Pac-Man was a little bit better. So Miss Pac-Man is that these little demons, these ghosts are chasing you around, you know, because you're trying to munch the little dots. But if you played it right, but down in the corner, there was a little escape hatch, right?

There's always an escape hatch. And if you could just shoot through that door, then you could pop out, and there were no more demons around you. You see, the Word of God reminds us that Jesus has conquered sin and death. The enemy tempts us that he is but a lackey on a chain, that he has to even have permission to walk anywhere near us, every single time the enemy comes at you with the pride of life, lest of the flesh, lest of the eyes, then you stand on the truth of the Word of God. It is written. I hope and pray that you

will do the work to identify the specific temptations against you and then use Bible Gateway or use the U-Version Bible app or go back through some of the sermons in the past where we have talked specifically about temptations and verses. And you have in your arsenal some it is written to help remind you that it is finished. Our good and grace is heavenly Father, Lord, we know that the enemy prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking to devour us through the pride of life,

lust of the eyes, lust of the flesh. And Lord, I pray that we would stand on the truth of the Word of God, that it is written, that it is finished. and because of your victory, God, we walk in victory. And so I pray that we would be so saturated in the Word of God that whenever we get squeezed by this world, that the Word of God would come out of us. We prayed in Jesus' name.